And third party AV in the real world seems to cause more issues than it solves.

This is really what it boils down to. Adding 3rd party security software to a system has to open more holes in the underlying operating system, for itself at the bare minimum. Instead of providing additional security, they increase the attack surface. Just the opposite of what your trying to do.

That's not to say they are never worth while. A centralized dashboard to manage all the computers can be well worth the cost.

To what end though? If the centralized console tells you it stopped an infection - now what? do you actually review what the user was doing? I suppose if you want to read daily reports that the AV is updated - you could get that from WSUS for Windows machines, though BYOD makes that kinda hard - though not impossible.

#3 is why I like webroot. Easy central control. Can you get any kind of management console for windows defender without giving MS a bunch more money?

You can make your own, but that's the same as spending money (basically.) The nice thing about Defender is that you rarely need central control. If that's something you need, then Defender is weak today. But rarely have we found a need for that.

And third party AV in the real world seems to cause more issues than it solves.

This is really what it boils down to. Adding 3rd party security software to a system has to open more holes in the underlying operating system, for itself at the bare minimum. Instead of providing additional security, they increase the attack surface. Just the opposite of what your trying to do.

That's not to say they are never worth while. A centralized dashboard to manage all the computers can be well worth the cost.

To what end though? If the centralized console tells you it stopped an infection - now what? do you actually review what the user was doing? I suppose if you want to read daily reports that the AV is updated - you could get that from WSUS for Windows machines, though BYOD makes that kinda hard - though not impossible.

That's my take on it, that's not information that I really want people sifting through under normal circumstances.

And third party AV in the real world seems to cause more issues than it solves.

This is really what it boils down to. Adding 3rd party security software to a system has to open more holes in the underlying operating system, for itself at the bare minimum. Instead of providing additional security, they increase the attack surface. Just the opposite of what your trying to do.

That's not to say they are never worth while. A centralized dashboard to manage all the computers can be well worth the cost.

To what end though? If the centralized console tells you it stopped an infection - now what? do you actually review what the user was doing? I suppose if you want to read daily reports that the AV is updated - you could get that from WSUS for Windows machines, though BYOD makes that kinda hard - though not impossible.

That's my take on it, that's not information that I really want people sifting through under normal circumstances.

#3 is why I like webroot. Easy central control. Can you get any kind of management console for windows defender without giving MS a bunch more money?

You can make your own, but that's the same as spending money (basically.) The nice thing about Defender is that you rarely need central control. If that's something you need, then Defender is weak today. But rarely have we found a need for that.

The console is mostly to see who did something stupid so I can say "hey, don't do that shit".

And third party AV in the real world seems to cause more issues than it solves.

This is really what it boils down to. Adding 3rd party security software to a system has to open more holes in the underlying operating system, for itself at the bare minimum. Instead of providing additional security, they increase the attack surface. Just the opposite of what your trying to do.

That's not to say they are never worth while. A centralized dashboard to manage all the computers can be well worth the cost.

Once of the biggest worries I've seen with third party tools is customers (so this is more for MSPs than in house people) who want to change it up, switch vendors, go to Defender, miss their renewals, or whatever (or in the case of ESET, a malicious vendor that disabled protection to try to extort money.) Anything goes wrong, and the protection shuts off.

That was what happened to one of our customers last week (they weren't our customer when it happened.) The had Defender for free, but old tools like Sophos and Kaspersky had disabled Defender and were actively removing it even after it was enabled even after they were removed. S&K ended up leaving us far more exposed than if we had never had them.

You're spending money on AV today - should you ditch it for something like KnowBe4?

I already asked about ditching it and instead spending on a patch management - and while Scott said patching is finally getting the recognition is deserves, he didn't say if people should shift their spending... and if they should - to what product do people like today?

#3 is why I like webroot. Easy central control. Can you get any kind of management console for windows defender without giving MS a bunch more money?

You can make your own, but that's the same as spending money (basically.) The nice thing about Defender is that you rarely need central control. If that's something you need, then Defender is weak today. But rarely have we found a need for that.

The console is mostly to see who did something stupid so I can say "hey, don't do that shit".

But again, I ask - to what end? it's not likely the company will fire them if they do it again, or do it 10 more times. So why waste your breath? As an IT person I want to help people be safer on the internet, etc - but I've come around to realize that unless I'm the dictator - that's simply not a priority in most companies - and I just need to LET IT GO.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

There are a lot of things that you can "install" (using install in the light sense) that can include ransomware, that doesn't require admin rights, as we saw at a now customer over the last few days. It was an end user account with access to the main document store that ransomed everything.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

If you have end users acting as admins, then a powerful central AV is way more important and doing things potentially beyond standard AV functions that are making more of a difference for you.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

You're spending money on AV today - should you ditch it for something like KnowBe4?

For internal IT? Almost always, yes.

For MSPs, not likely. Customers like the "monitoring feel", but dislike being told what to do.

In my case I have a customer who I consult for. They have Webroot today - they are asking - should we renew?

I'm thinking - nope, save the money. They are pulling Rojo's POV - not that it happens a lot, but they do get the notices when someone bounces into something bad, and they get a feel good feeling from it.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

Wow!

It is slowly changing for the better. Management's desire for bigger customers has shown them that we need WAY more security and best practices.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

oh - sorry I stopped reading before that part - and the broken fonts on the site are not showing anything in Bold

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

There are a lot of things that you can "install" (using install in the light sense) that can include ransomware, that doesn't require admin rights, as we saw at a now customer over the last few days. It was an end user account with access to the main document store that ransomed everything.

of course - I know this. I truly detest Google because Google Chrome and Chromium can be installed without local admin rights... and many programs can just run without the need for local admin - and yeah, infect, encrypt whatever it wants.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

Wow!

Why do they need local admin? because shitty applications? will they allow you to try to make solutions to that? There was a recent thread around here about that - getting an app to run as admin, though the user doesn't know the admin password.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

If you have end users acting as admins, then a powerful central AV is way more important and doing things potentially beyond standard AV functions that are making more of a difference for you.

That's my take on it as well. My users are mostly excellent, they rarely do dumb things. In fact, they often call me over to look at stuff they deem suspect, and it makes me smile to know they stopped to think first. But I sleep better knowing webroot is there.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

If you have end users acting as admins, then a powerful central AV is way more important and doing things potentially beyond standard AV functions that are making more of a difference for you.

That's my take on it as well. My users are mostly excellent, they rarely do dumb things. In fact, they often call me over to look at stuff they deem suspect, and it makes me smile to know they stopped to think first. But I sleep better knowing webroot is there.

Even IT people should not be local admins. It's partly about doing something dumb, but things can happen accidentally, too.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

Wow!

Why do they need local admin? because shitty applications? will they allow you to try to make solutions to that? There was a recent thread around here about that - getting an app to run as admin, though the user doesn't know the admin password.

My understanding is that our internal application and CRM need local admin rights. Poor design? Yes. But as the product advances, and as large potential customers scoff at things like that (also CRM only works in IE), things are slowly changing for the better.

@Dashrender true, but in my small environment, it's more to remind them of company policy (don't install shit until I approve it). It hasn't been a huge issue, but it helps fill in the gaps left by everyone being local admin and the lack of web filtering.

What? How can they install something? They dont' have admin rights, right?

See bold text. And yes, I know. Beyond my control.

Wow!

Why do they need local admin? because shitty applications? will they allow you to try to make solutions to that? There was a recent thread around here about that - getting an app to run as admin, though the user doesn't know the admin password.

My understanding is that our internal application and CRM need local admin rights. Poor design? Yes. But as the product advances, and as large potential customers scoff at things like that (also CRM only works in IE), things are slowly changing for the better.

We had a dev here a year ago or so that was able to get the CRM fully working in chrome, but it was an unofficial feature. So I know it can be done.

I can't believe you're getting new customers.

Haven't for a while, hopefully they fix that. We make software for property tax assessment... so not exactly the bleeding edge of technology in those government offices. I just recently shut down the last XP machine - its only purpose was for running a really old version of TeamViewer to support them. Super poor county with no means or desire to upgrade beyond that old TV and XP.